Lawmakers will support black issues

Thursday

Mar 27, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By CAROL E. LEESpecial to The Guardian

n 1956, two years after the Supreme Court demanded that black and white students be allowed to learn at the same public schools, the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives delivered a passionate speech in the Capitol condemning racial integration.

The following year - in interest of "arresting the progress of evil" - the state's all-white Legislature passed a resolution vowing to keep Florida's black and white children in separate schools.

It is scantly talked about in this state of Jimmy Buffett, beachfront condos and Disney World. But now, several bills in the Legislature, bolstered by Republican leadership, seek to reconcile Florida's past.

Newfound sympathy in Tallahassee for legislation impacting the state's 2.7 million black residents is a marked change for some legislators.

"I have been fighting these issues for 10 years and all of a sudden the people who would never support this are on board," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, ticking off the names of prominent Republicans.

Under consideration is an apology for slavery and an effort to classify hanging a noose to intimidate someone as a hate crime. Legislation to expand a program to study the plight of black males passed a committee last week. And restoring more civil rights for felons, who are disproportionately black, is up for further discussion.

Some of Florida's black legislators say Barack Obama's presidential candidacy has emboldened their longtime efforts simply by sparking a national dialogue on race - as evidenced by the attention given Obama's speech in Philadelphia last week where he called race an issue "this nation cannot afford to ignore right now."

In Florida, black lawmakers, all but one of whom is a Democrat, hold only two dozen seats in a 160-member Legislature dominated by Republicans.

The difference this year is that top Republican leaders are voicing support for issues that have long been championed by black legislators.

In his speech on opening day of the legislative session earlier this month, House Speaker Marco Rubio called it "a crisis of historic proportions" that "more young black men are headed to incarceration than to graduation." He urged the House to pass legislation to address the problem.

Senate President Ken Pruitt has expressed support this year for making Florida the sixth state in the nation to apologize for slavery.

Gov. Charlie Crist set the tone at his inauguration last year, when he bucked a tradition many African-Americans found offensive. He refused to play the state song, where a black man sings of longing "for de old plantation" and other "darkeys" at home in Florida.

Crist then went against the status quo and muscled through a plan to automatically restore voting and other rights, such as running for public office, for felons.

He has since been dubbed Florida's "first black governor" by many black lawmakers who felt shunned under former Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to abolish affirmative action in university admissions and state contracting.

"In terms of the leadership, they've shown much more of a willingness to at least allow those issues to be heard," said Rep. Curtis Richardson, D-Tallahassee.

"Under the previous administration, why raise the issue if you knew it wouldn't get a fair hearing or the support of the governor?"

Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer said the GOP is trying to make inroads with minority voters - a longtime Democratic base.

"The African American vote and the minority vote is really the future of the party," Greer said. "There is greater effort being made to be an inclusive party."

Yet it remains to be seen how much of the focus on symbolic issues, such as apologizing for slavery, will translate into substantive policy changes that affect the daily lives of African-Americans, who remain among the state's poorest residents.

House Democratic leader Rep. Dan Gelber, of Miami Beach, praised Crist's efforts, but said he has seen little difference in the Legislature's leadership.

"Frankly the Legislature hasn't done a whole lot to address these issues. We have trouble getting simple bills having to do with economic development in impoverished areas even heard," Gelber said. "In a state with the challenges we have, with education and poverty and health care, symbolism can only go so far."

Last year, Crist rejected a recommendation from the head of the Department of Corrections that arguably would have benefited the state's black residents: to release more inmates into job training and drug treatment programs.

The decision was disappointing to some lawmakers, who viewed it as leadership not wanting to be seen as soft on crime.

"It would have benefited a lot of black males," said Sen. Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee.

More than half of Florida's prison inmates are black.

Black legislators have made it clear this year they want more than voting rights for felons.

Wilson is pushing a bill that would expand employment opportunities for felons, who have difficulty getting certain jobs and professional licenses after release from prison.

"No one has ever called my office and said, â€òI want my rights restored Sen. Wilson because I want to vote.' People who have their rights don't even vote," Wilson said. "These people call to say, â€òI'd like to have my rights restored because I want a job.'"

Recognizing wrongs

Supporters of legislation such as an apology for slavery do not believe such measures will resolve the state's racial disparities in education, health and employment.

But they hope it might signal a turning point.

"It may not be that important to whites, but it's very important to African Americans," said Canter Brown, Jr., a former historian at the Tampa Bay History Center who has written about race relations in Florida. "It signifies a change in attitude and a willingness to express a conviction that wrongs had occurred."

Florida had nearly 63,000 slaves in the 1800s, close to half its population. An estimated 16,000 Floridians fought in the Confederate Army.

The ablition of slavery in 1865 at the end of the Civil War was followed by Jim Crow laws, lynchings, poll taxes and educational and job discrimination that set the tone for achievement rates among black Floridians today.

As the civil rights movement swept across the South, Florida was divided.

The southern region of the state grew with new residents who were more moderate or indifferent on race issues. But North Floridians had the legislative power and were "as rabid on race questions as any Georgia Cracker," political scientists William Havard and Loren Beth wrote in 1962.

Still, all parts of the state were embroiled in violent melees: Bombings hit Miami and Tampa. Black residents and white segregationists clashed on St. Augustine beaches.

"Florida in the post Civil War era up to the modern era had the worst record on civil rights than just about any state," said Brown, the historian. "The popular thing to do in the white community in Florida was to adamantly oppose better race relations through desegregation."

Now, Brown said, racism takes on a different form: "It's not violence, but it's an acceptance of an attitude that we don't have to do much."

Florida's black residents are among the state's poorest, least educated and most likely to be in prison.

The graduation rate for black students last year, for instance, was more than 20 percent below the rate for white students, 59 percent to 81 percent, according to the Florida Department of Education.

With such critical issues pressing, it may seem shortsighted to focus on symbolic gestures, but both are important, said Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at University of Florida.

"A lot of people dismiss it as pandering and as symbolic," Russell-Brown said of apologizing for slavery. "It's part of something much larger. That is some acknowledgment of our past, of our nation's past. To talk about slavery, to talk about nooses, about using the N-word, to talk about lynching, is progress."

Opponents of slavery resolutions typically argue that they mean nothing because no one alive today has been a slave or a slave owner. Others say it is an insultingly inadequate response to the suffering caused by slavery.

Florida's contentious history of race relations is also reflected in legislation filed this year to offer a license plate commemorating the state's "Confederate Heritage."

Rep. Don Brown, a Republican from DeFuniak Springs, said his constituents asked him to submit the bill. It is unlikely to get far, as the same proposal did not go anywhere last year.

One new issue raised this year stems from racially charged incidents that have gained national attention.

Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami, said she decided to file a bill after a number of nooses were reported, including in Florida at a Pembroke Pines high school lunch table and in a Miami Police station bathroom.

"Race relations unfortunately throughout the U.S. have really digressed," said Bullard, president of the Legislature's black caucus. "We need to bury this issue."

The same goes for slavery, said Anderson Hill, a 53-year-old deacon at Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church in Orlando who works with black youth.

"We just have a lot of pain," Hill said. "And a lot of it regards our situation from the past." Formally acknowledging that slavery was wrong, he added: "will at least give African Americans a starting point to recover and do better in our society so we can help ourselves and nurture ourselves."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.